


The Dead Planet.

by anantipodean



Series: BATS in SPACE [3]
Category: DCU, DCU - Comicverse, Superboy (Comics), Supergirl, Superman (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Gen, Life on Krypton, Superfamily, Superfamily (DCU)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-25
Updated: 2013-05-25
Packaged: 2017-12-12 22:23:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/816730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anantipodean/pseuds/anantipodean
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Kryptonian has brought Kon to his new home. Kon is finding it anything but welcoming. </p><p>Forget escaping CADMUS, making friends or even learning about his Kryptonian heritage -- Kon's biggest challenge may simply be leaving his room.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dead Planet.

**Author's Note:**

> This was not supposed to take as long as it did! A companion piece to _Solar Flare_ , this fic takes place between chapters 2 and 3, immediately after the Kryptonian interrupts Kon and Tim to whisk Kon 'home.' Clearly, my timing is as bad as the Kryptonian's as this is appearing 4 chapters later. 
> 
> Whoops. 
> 
> I have an excuse in the form of a head-cold, which is also the reason the next chapter of Solar Flare is taking so long to complete. Apologies everyone! Hopefully I can make it worth the wait.

Kon woke with a start. There was light, air cool on his bare skin, the surface beneath him smooth and cold, and all he could think of was ‘dissecting table.’

Scrambling to a sitting position, Kon stared uncomprehendingly at the scene before him. A cavern cut from rock with an evenness that was clearly unnatural. Here and there, colums of the clear rock stretched down, and stalagmites rose from the floor, rough unhewn edges contrasting the smoothness of the floor. The jagged rocks were clear and shone, seemingly channelling light from somewhere else. Quartz?

The hell was he doing wondering what the rocks were? Okay, so there wasn’t the dull whine of buzz saws or Donovan looming over him with a laser but what there was was pretty weird all the same. A bed that seemed to be hewn from one great chunk of the same rock that made up the rest of the room, draped with a smooth red fabric that Kon was pretty sure he recognized from somewhere.

It wasn’t until he noticed the red and blue suit laid out, Kryptonian insignia outlined in gold that Kon remembered.

He’d been so tired from the flight, between stars and planets and silence, focused on the red of the Kryptonian’s cape and his own anger and fear and Tim and then it had all just dulled down to the cape and growing exhaustion but Kon was determined to do this and he had, even if he’d not heard a word of what the Kryptonian had said after they’d arrived and fallen into the bed as soon as it was offered.

Kon let out a slow breath. He was on Krypton. The Dead Planet.

Home.

The cloth of the suit was thin and silky and Kon supposed it was very lucky that he didn’t have any body image issues, because it clung to him in all the wrong places (and a few of the right ones). It was warmer than he’d expected, once his skin had adjusted to the initial coolness, and Kon floated, studying his reflection in the quartz walls. The S-insigna shone back at him, and Kon ran a hand over it hesitantly. Was this who he was now?

His stomach growled and Kon decided that first things first; food. He could decide on his identity after breakfast.

There was just the one problem -- the room he was in didn’t seem to have a door.

Kon drifted around the room, running his hands over the stone. There were no obvious cracks. On his second circuit of the room, he started to get a little concerned. Was he trapped until the Kryptonian returned?

The third circuit Kon was convinced that he’d been forgotten and left there to die. Which -- could be a really long time, because _Kryptonians_ and wasn’t that a terrifying thought? He flopped onto the bed and groaned again, because it didn’t just look like it was a slab of rock, it was a slab of rock.

... a slab of gently pulsing rock.

Kon hesitantly put a hand to the surface of the bed not covered by the red cloth. It felt -- warm? Like a fainter reflection of the sun. Was that why ... ?

A more indepth examination of the room revealed a faintly glowing shaft of crystal by the bed, that displayed an image when Kon reached out with curious fingers. The Kryptonian looked down at him implacably, as unreadable in the hologram as he was in reality.

 _Kon-El. I have ... business on Metropolis. Kara and Krypto are here if you need them._ The Kryptonian hesitated before inclining his head, a hand reaching out to end the recording. Kon only absently noted that with its message played, the crystal had gone as dim as the rest of the room. Behind the Kryptonian, was the door to the room -- open.

Now that Kon knew where it was, finding the door was easy. Knowing what to look for helped too -- placing his hand on a lightly glowing panel, Kon saw the rock part before him with triumph. Kon: 1; Alien Doors 0.

 

The Kryptonian had kept the rock theme going with the rest of his place. Rather than opening onto a corridor, a hall, another room or anything normal, he’d opted for giant fucking cavern. Kon drifted slowly down towards the floor below, tracing a hand over the rough surface of the crystal wall. His room was part of a wall that had clearly been cut out of the rock, while the other side of the cavern seemed much more irregular, like the inside of an actual mountain, maybe? The rock was clear, but thick enough that it wasn’t see through. This didn’t prevent it from either radiating or reflecting light, and Kon spent a few minutes trying to work out just how the cavern was lit clear as daylight without any obvious light sources.

By the time it occurred to him that he might want to locate the door to his room again in the future, Kon was more than halfway down the wall, with numerous doors dotting the spaces above him, all of which looked identical.

Kon: 1, Alien doors: 1.

Kon lost track of how long he spent wandering the tunnels. Most of the doors didn’t open at his touch, but the ones that did were bedrooms like the one he’d found himself in, living spaces with chairs and tables, or simply empty of anything. They got bigger the further along the tunnel he progressed, until eventually he wandered into a room of gleaming crystal surfaces inset with monitors and humming with the working of machinery.

Floating into the room, Kon ran a hand curiously along the nearest workstation, snatching it away as the crystal panelling immediately lit up. Really did not want to break the Kryptonian’s stuff on his first day on the planet. Though … what was this? It looked a lot like the control centre of a shuttle or space station … and some of the screens were active, looked on specific points of Krypton, Metropolis news feeds, and the satellites orbiting Krypton. The controls didn’t look too different from a human keyboard, even if the symbols on them looked like no alphabet that Kon had ever seen, and there were a host of controls obviously geared to specific functions. Just knowing what he was looking at, if not the specifics, made Kon feel somehow better about things -- Kon: 2, Alien planet: 1?

He’d settled in front of the Metropolis news feeds, wondering if he dared trying to change the channel when a low growl behind him indicated that Kon was not as alone as previously thought.

There was a small, white, furry … thing, with sharp teeth drawn back in a very obvious expression of ‘Do you feel lucky, Punk?’

“Woah,” Kon said putting his hands up in what he hoped was a placating gesture. “I do not know where you came from but I am supposed to be here. The Kryptonian -- maybe you know him? Huge guy, built like a mountain, likes red and blue and not giving explanations? Him? He brought me here.”

The thing continued to growl, advancing towards Kon.

“Not really a fan? Or -- hey! Watch where you’re sticking your nose, dude!”

The thing didn’t respond, continuing to sniff Kon’s legs. At least it had stopped growling as it inspected him. The long thin tail at the end of its body wagged slowly up and down.

Tails, wagging -- hang on, there had been something about this in the tank. “You’re a dog! Dude. The Kryptonian has a _pet_?”

The dog barked at him.

“Or guard dog. Companion. Whatever.” Dog’s were like, man’s best friend, right? And Kon was half-human, so he totally had this covered. He extended a hand, trying to pat the dog on the head, but the dog was more interested in smelling his hand than getting petted. “I’m trying to pat you, here. Stupid dog.”

Instantly, the dog was on guard again, hackles raised, growling from deep in its throat.

Kon snatched his hand back before remembering that he was invulnerable now and didn’t have much to fear from a dog. “Uh. You speak human?”

That had been the wrong thing to say. The dog advanced on Kon, tail wagging. He made a few feints, barking before darting back, eyes fixed on Kon the entire time.

“Okay, not really sure what’s going on here but maybe we got off on the wrong foot. You’re … just going to keep doing that, huh.” The dog barked and darted again. Well, at least it was an improvement to trying to get his nose in Kon’s crotch. “Sure. Fine.” Man, if only CADMUS had thought to include a breakdown of what to do in these situations. Kon gave the dog a baleful look as he straightened up. “Uh -- good doggy?”

And as if that had been the invitation to attack that the beast had been waiting for, it leapt at him.

 

It was about four hours later that Kryptonian returned. By this time, the demon dog had dragged Kon through what felt like the entire mountain, wrestled him into submission and was resting on top of a pile of blankets in the main entrance hall, alternating between chewing on Kon’s leg and grooming himself. He greeted the Kryptonian with a volley of barking, racing up to him, tail going a million miles an hour.

Kon took the opportunity to pick himself up, rubbing gingerly at his arm. Invulnerable didn’t mean dog teeth didn’t hurt, even if they didn’t do any damage, and the sheer amount of dog slobber was going to give him nightmares.

“Down, boy.” The Kryptonian paused only long enough to ruffle the dog’s ears. “I see you’ve met Krypto, Kon-El. In the future, keep in mind that generally Krypto’s only allowed to play outside.”

‘Playing, nothing. The dog fricking tried to murder me!’ was what Kon wanted to say. Instead, what came out of his mouth was “Uh. There’s an outside?”

Bemused the Kryptonian gestured back the way he’d come in. “Open the main door.”

On cue, two panels that were absolutely indistinguishable from the surrounding rock until they began to move slid back, letting in a cooling breeze and revealing a splash of blue sky and greenery.

Kon: 2, Alien planet: Everything ever.

Krypto barked happily, returning to Kon shove him towards the door with his head.

Kon stood his ground as firmly as possible. “Woah -- calm down, mutt! I think you’ve tortured me enough for one day.”

The Kryptonian came to his rescue, with a hand placed firmly on Kon’s shoulder, anchoring him. “Go on, Krypto. Kon-El will play with you later.”

The dog’s ears drooped but as a minute passed and the Kryptonian didn’t relent it decided to bark its discontent before prancing out the door.

“Krypto’s a good dog,” the Kryptonian said. “But you must take a strong tone with him.”

“Sure. I’ll keep that in mind.” _Next time I’m getting fucking mauled._

The Kryptonian was heading down the corridor towards the control room Kon had found. He trailed after him. 

“How did you do that thing with the door?”

“What thing?”

“When you told it to open and it did? That thing?”

“That’s the A.I. It responds to commands in Kryptonian, Interlag, and a variety of human languages.” The Kryptonian paused. “It should have been operational. A.I. … ?”

The response was automatic. A male voice, seemingly coming from just above Kon’s shoulder. “All systems were online and 100% functional from your departure to your return, Kal-El. Kon-El chose not to make use of them.” 

“There is a difference between ‘chose not to make use of them’ and ‘had no fucking clue they were there,’” Kon protested, but he was beginning to suspect that this was just not his day.

“I did mention it when we arrived last night,” The Kryptonian said with a frown as they reached the control room, the doors sliding open automatically for him -- and Kon couldn’t help but remember that the A.I. had made him open every single door himself. “But you were tired.”

 _About to collapse from exhaustion, but eh. Semantics._ “I don’t remember much of last night.”

“Naturally, should Kon-El have appeared in need of existence, I would have made my presence known,” the A.I. continued primly. “But Kon-El seemed content playing with Krypto so I judged it better to let him be.”

 _Content, my ass._ Kon glared at the point the voice sounded like it came from. “Gee. Thanks.”

The Kryptonian stood in front of the main monitor, tapping a few buttons to bring up a new series of feeds -- the League’s feeds? There was a blinding array of languages, differing species, even symbols, but the Kryptonian was seemingly able to navigate through them to the information he wanted. “It is well that you have made friends with Krypto,” he said. “He needs more attention than I can spare him, and Kara has banned him from her garden.”

On the brink of telling him point-blank that Kon had no intention of becoming doggy’s best friend, the clone paused. “Kara?”

“She has not greeted you?” For the first time, the Kryptonian paused, seeming disappointed.

Kon shrugged.

“Kara Zor-El has spent the day in her garden,” the A.I. reported. “She has not ventured out of the Southern hemisphere since you departed.”

“She is … very devoted to her garden,” the Kryptonian said uncertainly. “She must have lost track of time. I’ll let her know you’re awake now.” He cleared his throat. “Kara, Kon-El is awake. I am showing him over the Fortress. Perhaps you would care to join us?”

There was little in difference in volume between the two statements that Kon could hear. And yet the second sounded -- firmer? It was definitely more clearly enunciated, and there was a different quality to it, that he wasn’t sure how to define. “And she’ll hear that? Even in the Southern Hemisphere?”

“Kara’s hearing is as adept as my own,” the Kryptonian remarked, looking at him equally quizically. “You cannot … ?”

Kon shook his head.

“Ah. Well. You are yet young. Very young by the standards of our people. I’m sure it will come to you as you mature.”

Comforting. “Great. Until then, you mind giving me directions to either the kitchen or the gents?”

“Kitchen?”

“Yeah. I kind of never got as far as breakfast, and the flight here took a lot out of me, so you know, I’ll just make myself a sandwich or two. Whatever’s around. No fuss.” He paused. The Kryptonian’s expression was hard to place. “There is a kitchen?”

“There is a kitchen.” A door at the far end of the control room opened under the A.I’s direction.

“There’s a kitchen,” the Kryptonian agreed. “But I do not think you’ll find it what you expect.”

He was right about that.

Kon poked at the dust on the counters. “Wow. When the A.I. said that no one had been in here in centuries, he wasn’t joking.”

The A.I. beeped in reproval. “I am always factual.”

“I will answer Kon-El’s queries,” the Kryptonian said. There was no reply, evidently the A.I. could take a hint. “The kitchen has not been used for a very long time. What organic supplies there were are long gone.”

“You really don’t eat?”

“The yellow sun of this solar system is not simply the source of our powers. It is also our primary source of energy. Its light is captured by the solar panels in the roof of this mountain, reflected, concentrated and redistributed throughout the Fortress. No matter where you go within it, you are exposed to its energy.”

Kon hesitated. He still felt as hungry as he did when he woke … but he had to admit that he didn’t feel any hungrier. No gnawing feeling at the inside of his stomach, no feeling of tiredness or faintness … but damn, he still could have gone for a burger. Sandwich. Chocolate bar. Anything. “And sleeping? I mean, there’s an off-switch for the light right--”

“We don’t sleep.”

_Oh._

_Wow._

“So basically, all these years of living, I’ve just been doing it wrong.”

“Simply existing seems to be well within the grasp of even such basic forms of life as bacteria and algae. That your clone has so far failed to grasp it makes me question the wisdom of bringing him here, Kal-El.”

Just what Kon’s perfect day had been lacking. Another critic.

“I was existing perfectly fine before being brought to weird alien planet--” Kon started, turning towards the coolly unimpressed female voice, only to be brought up short by its owner.

Her eyes were the same cold blue as the Kryptonian’s, and the same arrogance, surety and strength of will was visible in her brow and posture. Also visible: soft, inviting lips, striking blonde hair, low cut neckline that called attention to her breasts, ample and yet still perky, perfectly in proportion to the curve of her waist, tight waist, elegant legs and frankly hostile scowl.

“Weird alien planet, which I am totally loving by the way?”

“You speak of my home, worm--”

“Kara,” the Kryptonian interrupted. “Kon-El has not had the opportunity to learn of his home-planet’s history or culture. As the only one of us to have grown up among our people, it would behoove you to share your knowledge with him.”

Kara’s lip curled. Even her teeth were perfect -- naturally. “He must prove himself worthy of our name before I will consent to share with him our heritage,” she said.

“He is of our blood.”

“He speaks human. His actions are human. He smells human. He--”

“Dude, when did you smell me?”

“--knows only to live as a human,” finished the blonde Kryptonian with another fierce scowl. “I see nothing in him that I may recognize of my people.”

Was it a natural law, the hotter a girl was, the higher her levels of batshit? Or was Kon just lucky, bringing out the angry in women? “If I could interject here a moment--”

The Kryptonian’s hand on his shoulder startled him into silence. “You will, Kara. Kon-El is part of our family now. Krypton’s past is his to share -- as its future is.”

Kara hesitated, but evidently even hot alien goddess types were not immune to the Kryptonian’s glower of steel. “I have much to do,” she said, turning aside. “I will return to my garden.”

The mountain seemed even more silent in the wake of her departure.

“So,” Kon ventured, when the emptiness got loud enough to grate. “That could maybe have gone a lot better.”

“Kara is still grieving the loss of our world,” the Kryptonian explained. “For her, it has not been so long. She will warm to you in time.”

“Yeah. Is blinding optimism another Kryptonian super-power I’m going to grow into, or is that one just you?”

The Kryptonian gave him another unreadable look, and Kon felt even more awkward and out of place than usual under the faintly puzzled scrutiny he saw in those blue eyes. Which considering how awkward he felt on a daily basis was really saying something.

“Kara did have a good point though. A.I.? Direct Kon-El to his bathroom.” The Kryptonian nodded to him as another door slid open. “You will find everything you need there.”

It was clearly a dismissal. Kon sulked down the corridor following the A.I.’s direction back to his room, which apparently was hiding an en-suite to go with the door he couldn’t find. An entire planet, practically unpopulated, and yet he still got grief over his hygiene?

The bathroom went just as well as anything else had on Krypton. It took Kon an hour just to figure out the controls for the weird cleansing steam thing that the Kryptonians used in place of a shower, and when he’d requested something stronger, the A.I. had produced freezing jets of water so hard that Kon was pretty sure that he was going to have bruises. The altercation of words that had followed had resulted in the A.I. shutting off contact with him, and how twisted was that, that he’d managed to piss off not only every living thing on the face of Krypton, but even the artificial lifeform that wasn’t supposed to be able to be pissed off.

“Dead planet? Not dead enough. Geez -- to think I’d be missing the Caverns of all places,” Kon complained as finally cleaned and dressed he left the bathroom. “All I can say is, I-- oh, what now.”

He’d been found. The white beast, Krypto, had been lurking outside in the corridor clearly waiting for Kon to emerge. As he noticed him, the dog bared his teeth, tail wagging in quick emphasis of his intentions.

“Time for round two, is it? I’ve got your number this time, Krypto,” Kon warned him, bracing himself for the encounter. “Bring it.”

And Krypto did.


End file.
